Microsoft’s New VR Controller Is Aimed at the Visually Impaired

Microsoft has been working on a new virtual reality controller aimed at a segment that has traditionally not even been a part of the VR market — visually dumb people.

The Redmond Giant is looking to bring the virtual reality feel to visually dumb people and has finally come upwards with a product that tin can successfully practise that very matter. It'southward non perfect, just it's an exceptionally well-rounded achievement nonetheless.

Microsoft's controller works on haptics, and equally such uses sounds and vibrations to communicate with visually impaired people. The controller basically functions in VR every bit an object similar to the white pikestaff used by visually impaired people in real life simply is much smaller than a pikestaff.

The company has succeeded in making the controller recognize objects in the virtual earth and detect collisions with them — something it then communicates to the user using sounds and vibrations.

The experiment, overall, shows a lot of promise. According to reports, eight out of nine participants were able to properly navigate through the VR world in indoor simulations. The outdoor simulation had a lower success rate but still managed an impressive number. Six people were able to successfully navigate in the outdoor simulation.

In that location is still a lot of piece of work to practise. 1 participant mentioned that the mode sound has been modeled in the virtual globe isn't close enough to the way information technology works in reality, making it confusing for visually dumb people to properly orient themselves based on audio.

"I didn't have a good sense of direction where I was at [in the real world]. I can hear roughly where the wall is at, by the fashion information technology blocks off audio in the real world. I didn't have that in the VR globe," he said.

At the cease of the day, information technology's a novel idea, and Microsoft is definitely on the correct track. After all, a disability shouldn't keep someone away from experiencing the all-time that technology has to offering.